Dalai Lama (Author) - Stages of Meditation: The Buddhist Classic on Training the Mind (Core Teachings of Dalai Lama Book 4)

In the Indian language Bhavanakrama, and in the Tibetan language Gompai Rimpa.

Homage to the youthful Manjushri. I shall briefly explain the stages of meditation for those who follow the system of Mahayana sutras. The intelligent who wish to actualize omniscience extremely quickly should make deliberate effort to fulfill its causes and conditions.

The great spiritual master Kamalashila composed this text called the Stages of Meditation in three parts: the initial Stages of Meditation, the intermediate Stages of Meditation, and the last Stages of Meditation. Here I am explaining the intermediate Stages of Meditation. The essential subjects of this treatise are the awakening mind of bodhichitta and the perfect view. The spiritual paths that lead to the ultimate goal of Buddhahood are two: method and wisdom. These two qualities produce the physical body, or rupakaya, and the wisdom body, or dharmakaya, respectively. The first represents perfection of working for the welfare of other sentient beings and the second represents the perfection of ones own purposes. The methods for generating bodhichitta and the wisdom realizing emptiness together form the foundation of the Buddhist teachings, and this text provides a clear exposition of these two aspects of the Buddhist path to enlightenment.

When we take a closer look at these teachings, we come to understand that compassionate thought is the root of bodhichitta, or awakening mind. This thought of enlightenment must be put into practice in conjunction with the wisdom that realizes the ultimate nature of all phenomena, emptiness. This wisdom should be a union of special insight and a calmly abiding mind single-pointedly focused on its object, emptiness.

Most of you who are listening to this come from the Lahaul, Kinnaur, and Spiti regions of India, and most of you have a certain amount of education. However, the teaching technique I shall employ here is primarily oriented to those who dont believe in religion. In the process, I want to show how one can generate interest in religion in general and Buddhism in particular. There are many lines of reasoning that can help us develop interest in religion. In this way we may realize that religion is not based on mere faith, but that faith arises in conjunction with reason and logic. Basically, there are two types of faith: that which is not based on any special reason and that which is backed by reason. In the case of the second type of faith, an individual examines the object of his or her belief and investigates its relevance to his or her needs and requirements. Faith is generated after seeing the reasons why it is advantageous. In Buddhism in general, and in the Mahayana path in particular, we examine the contents of the teachings and accept those that are logical and reasonable and reject those that are illogical. As such there are occasions when teachings that are in the Buddhas own words should not be taken literally, but need interpretation. Scriptural teachings that cannot stand logical analysis should not be taken literally, but require interpretation. On the other hand, scriptural teachings that can stand logical analysis should be taken literally. However, if we search for another scriptural authority to distinguish those scriptures that are to be understood literally and those that are to be interpreted, we will fall into the fallacy of infinite regress. We must examine both types of scriptural teachings with logic. Therefore, we can see that in the study of Buddhist scriptures, logical analysis has a very important place.